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Trolley Gold

In Brief

Trolley Gold is a casual arcade game released on Steam March 2017. Created by Mantis Games and follows the stories of the gold rushes of the 19th century. It has Pachinko like game play, but is in my opinion ultimately disappointing due to the sluggish movement of the trolley that collects the falling gold.

Installation:

Trolley Gold downloads to a 101 MB zip file that unzips to two files, (a setup executable with no wrapper and a read me). The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed if you wish. The installed game is 101 MB in size.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Trolley Gold

Assuming you check the box for a desktop shortcut . five shortcuts will be installed to the desktop, four of which can be safely deleted (i.e. Falco Space - Online Game!, FalconLine Online Games Website, FalcoGo WebGL Games! and Free Games Downloads!). If you don't want to install the games shortcut to the desktop during installation, just make sure the install desktop shortcut is unchecked when the 'additional task's window appears; you will still get two of the other Falcoware shortcuts installed (i.e. FalconLine Online Games Website & FalcoGo WebGL Games shortcuts). Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure the appropriate checkbox is unchecked when the 'additional task's window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window)..

Introduction:

Do you want to collect all the gold in the world? The game Trolley Gold gives you this opportunity! In this game you have to get into the role of gold miners team. You control the two crew members who using uncomplicated mechanism drive the trolley. You need to catch the gold nuggets, which another friend of yours produces. He skillfully wields a pick-axe and never gets tired. Also you have other friends who are happy to help you with a variety of useful things, so that your team would be able to fulfill its main goal - to collect as much gold as possible. But it’s not so simple, throughout the game you will have to face many obstacles and enemies that with all the forces want to hinder you. Well, who said it would be easy? During the game you will visit several places around the globe and learn a lot of interesting things about the life of gold diggers.

Features:

⦁ 5 original colorfully drawn locations
⦁ Original enemies and obstacles throughout the game
⦁ System of assessment of passing the level
⦁ Realistic physics in the 2d world
⦁ Fascinating and original gameplay
⦁ Historical facts as the game progresses

Reference accessed HERE. 20th February 2019

The Game:

Trolley gold was released on Steam on the 17th April 2017 and included Steam cards and achievements; however, but we get a non-Steam version with no achievements or cards. It was developed by Mantis Games and distributed by Displacement Studios and Falco Games. Trolley Gold is a casual arcade game that despite being released almost two years ago has garnered no community reviews and the only comments via other links on the game page are either derogatory or totally unrelated to the game.

The game menus are very basic with music and in-game sound volumes controlled by mouse clicks from 0 to 10, plus a language button that allows English (EN) or русский (RU). To control the trolley use the left and right arrow keys. There are three bonus pick ups that give you more time to complete the level, increases your speed and gives you an extra life. Most other pick- ups are negative and/or dangerous. To pass a level you need to fill your trolley to at least 50% without damage. If you receive damage, you need to collect more gold.

The game is divided into five distinct regions that represent the five gold rushes throughout the nineteenth century, i.e. Californian gold rush of 1849, the Australian gold rush of 1851, the African gold rush of 1886, the Canadian gold rush of 1896 (Klondike gold rush) and the Alaskan gold rush of 1898. Each area has a distinctly different environment and different obstacles to overcome. Also each area is represented by five levels, making a total of 25 levels to complete the game. Each level has up to a three star rating, that is governed by how much you fill your trolley with gold. 100% with no damage to the trolley and withing the allotted time will give you three stars. You need to collect the gold that drops and not the various rocks that drop. If you collect more than three of the larger rocks, your trolley will be destroyed, as each large rock hits the trolley you can see more sustancial damage to the trolley. As you progress through the levels larger rocks appear to become more abundant. I spent almost an hour trying to get past level 1-2, but was constantly being destroyed by larger rocks, which becasue of the trolleys snails pace, were difficult to avoid, especially when they sometimes dropped in waves.

Bonus items do drop occasionally, but I found it really difficult to collect any during the time I played the game; ( I only managed to collected 1 bonus after almost 2 hours of game play). The speed up bonus would definitely help, but as I never managed to collect one I cannot say whether these bonuses are temporary or last to the end of the level. My trolley was destroyed so many times, yet I was able to restart the level with no apparent loss of a life, so the additional life bonus at the point I progressed to seemed pointless, unless it stops your trolley from being destroyed? If I continue to play the game later, (doubtful) I'll update this to include more factual information about the bonus items and the other gold rush area's. When your trolley is hit and damaged, the miner occasionally drops a spanner, which will repair one large rocks worth of damage. The small rocks appear to damage the trolley slightly, but not visually, only via the gold indicator. If you fill the trolley more than 50%, but you also have a lot of damage, this is subtracted from your gold and you may still fail the level despite having more than 50%. The trolley moves very sluggishly, so you need to anticipate where the gold is going to drop. Centering the trolley was the best tactic I found, though you can often guess where the gold will drop once you've figured the layout of the platforms that the gold and rocks drop across. That said, not all items that drop follow the laws of physics as in some levels, the gold and rocks rolled up slopes instead of down.

Trolley Gold is vaguely similar to a Pachinko game with the gold and rocks representing the steel balls that drop in Pachinko. Sadly, (IMO), it comes nowhere near as entertaining as Pachinko, partly because of the sluggish movement of the trolley, which made it very difficult to catch falling gold and bonus items. unless you happen to be at the right place at the right time. If you chose to stay in one place, where the gold drops occasionally, you would not pass the 50% requirement in the time allotted. If you mamabge to pass a level you'll see three buttons in the top right hand corner of the game board. The first button takes you back to the level select screen, the second button allows you to replay the game (to try and get the three star rating) and the third button takes you directly to the next level. If your trolley is destroyed during a level, these buttons appear in the center of the game board. Once you've completed level 1-1, level 1-2 is unlocked; all other levels from each stage are locked until the preceding level has been completed. You can return to any unlocked levels.

Each stage and level is introduced by some historical facts, for example level 1-1 gives the following information: the Californian Gold rush began at Sutter's mill near Coloma on January 24th 1848. James W Marshall, a foreman at the mill, who was working for the pioneer John Sutter, found some shiny metal in the tail-race of a lumber mill. Marshall was building for Sutter on the American river. Marshall brought what he found to John Sutter and the two privately tested the metal. After the tests showed it was gold, Sutter expressed dismay. He wanted to keep the news quiet becasue he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if there was amass search for gold. Level 1-2 says: However, rumors soon started to spread and were confirmed in March 1848 by San Fransisco newspaper publisher and merchant Samuel Brannan. the most famous quote of the Californian Gold Rush was by Brannan. After he had hurriedly set up a store to sell gold prospecting supplies. Brannan strode through the streets of San Fransisco. holding aloft a vial of gold, shouting - ''Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River''. Level 1-3 says: On august 19, 1848. The New York Herald was the first major newspaper on the East coast to report the discovery of gold. On December the 5th 1848. President James Polk confirmed the discovery of gold in an address to congress. soon waves of immigrants from around the world. Later called the forty-niners, invaded the gold country of California or mother lode. As Sutter had feared, he was ruined as his workers left in search of gold and squatters took over his land and stole his crops and cattle.

Whiterabbit-uk 20th February 2019

Conclusion:

The idea behind the game is solid, but the execution is flawed. Spending almost an hour trying to get past level 1-2 then a further three quarters of an hour failing to get past level 1-3 just left me frustrated and increasingly bored of this game. I love Pachinko, the nearest genre I can compare this too. Memories of my childhood abound with Pachinko games in the arcades I visited frequently every July and September when my grandparents took me to various UK seaside resorts (usually North Wales or the coastal area's of the Lake District in July and Blackpool to see the famous illuminations in September). We always stayed for a week in both places and I was given pocket money every day, most of which was spent on either Pachinko games (the old mechanical versions) or the penny falls games. I always left empty handed.

This game could be massively improved just by being able to adjust the spoeed of the trolley. This could be an extra slider control in the options menu that enabled you to select various speeds. Other bonus items could also be included such as gold multipliers, more repair items and even a level editor that enabled you to create your own levels, which culd then be shared by the community.

Videos of Trolley Gold:

You can see several in-game videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE (русский) & HERE.

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play today's giveaway please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback; for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, or how it could be improved. If you don't like the genre at all, please explain why and if any, what improvements would change your mind? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience, thank you. If you wish to post a review or comment about the game later, you can access the comments section by going to the game giveaways home page, then scroll to the bottom of the page where it says Archives and select the date the giveaway was live (giveaway days are in bold type). This will open the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review. Alternatively, you can google the name of the game and include Gamegiveawayoftheday in the search. This should give you a list of links to whenever this game was given away.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via Steam for £1.69/$1.99/€1.59 24/7 HERE; or If you prefer to purchase the game you can get it HERE via Big Fish Games.

Problems getting the game to work:

If you're having problems installing or activating or getting Trolley gold to work please visit the FAQ's Thread HERE and read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted, for example, a common issue seen since the Themida wrapper was introduced three years ago is that some community members installation of the game are blocked by their security because Themida code has been known to hide malware, (usually an error message is flagged for example 'The executable is corrupted' even though in reality it is not); so as a precaution some anti malware programs will block and even delete the suspect installation files even though the files (i.e. the setup, read me and setup.gcd files are actually totally free from malware. This issue can be solved either by rebooting your computer in safe mode with networking or a quicker method is to temporarily turn off your security software to allow the installation. You could also try white-listing the setup.gcd file. In the almost 12 years this game giveaway site has been operating there has 'never' been a game given away that was infected with malware.

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, you have a game to offer the community, or are unable to download the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve you can do so HERE

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Mantis Games and Falcoware Games for giving away Trolley gold and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If Trolley Gold doesn't interest you, but you still hanker for something new to play, you'll find details of some game deals whether they be sale items, indie bundles or games being given away for free HERE (I've not updated the thread in a while, but most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

The rest of the information that used to be posted in the game review can be found in the forums HERE. Finally, check out Delenns threads for details of other free games and offers HERE and elsewhere in the game discussion forums HERE, (usually on the first page of the game discussion forums). The free game over at epic games Axion Verge (worth £14.99/$19.99/€17.99) ends tomorrow (21st February), so this is the last chance to grab that game for free. You can also get the non Steam single player version of Welcome to Princeland for free temporarily via Indie Gala (you'll need a free account to claim the game) HERE; the SP/MP version is usually worth £3.99/$4.99/€3.99 and can be found on Steam HERE. Finally, there are some excellent bargains on sale via Steam HERE (over 2200); for example if like me you love breakout games, a challenging one I've been playing recently called Ionball 2: Ionstorm is on sale until 25th February 6pm (UST) for only £0.41/$0.49/€0.39 and out of 175 reviews most are positive.